| West Bird's Head | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | West Papua |
| Linguistic classification | West Papuan
|
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | west1493 |
West Bird's Head languages are a small family of poorly documentedPapuan languages spoken on theBird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea.
The West Bird's Head (WBH) family is a well-defined family of six languages spoken at the western end of theBird's Head Peninsula of New Guinea and the eastern part of the island ofSalawati opposite the Bird's Head's western shore. Based on pronominal evidence, they appear to be related to theNorth Halmahera languages ofNorth Maluku.[1]
West Bird's Head languages have been heavily influenced byAustronesian languages. Austronesian influence is evident inSVO word order (as opposed toSOV word order in most otherPapuan language families), pronouns, numerals, and other typological features.[2]: 625
Kuwani is attested only from a single word list, but is clearly distinct.[3]
These languages cannot be easily linked to other families of the Bird‘s Head Peninsula.[2]: 626 They have been plausibly connected to the geographically close North Halmahera (NH) family, a relationship considered clear by Reesink 1998;[4] however, the evidence does not appear to be conclusive.[1][5]: 20 In particular, the available lexical evidence is flimsy, as noted by Holton and Klamer (2018).[2]: 626–627 On the other hand, the geographical proximity of the two families lends credibility to this proposal. The connection between WBH and NH was first proposed by H.K.J. Cowan (1957), and further discussed byC.L. Voorhoeve (1987, 1994).[2]: 580
A link between WBH and the isolatesAbun andMaybrat has also been proposed (Wichmann 2013, Flassy 2002).[6][2]: 582
The following basic vocabulary words are from Voorhoeve (1975),[7] as cited in the Trans-New Guinea database.[8]
The words cited constitute translation equivalents, whether they are cognate (e.g.kalen,kelem,kele for “bird”) or not (e.g.tolok,begu,niwi for “egg”).
| gloss | Kalabra | Moi | Moraid | Seget | Tehit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| head | safas | sawa | sawag | sadus | sam |
| hair | sadin | sagin | sadie | salas | gen |
| eye | sifoko | suo | sgolfun | si | tsifon |
| tooth | tela | efek | etəla | gifek | -hek |
| leg | terit | telek | ere | cek | ndeit |
| louse | on | sayam | oŋ | wut | hain |
| dog | houn | ofun | ŋouŋ | awfu | |
| pig | beak | baik | mimula | mon | |
| bird | kalen | kelem | kele | klem | klen |
| egg | weko | tolok | begu | niwi | mesyen |
| blood | hein | sdam | hijeg | sədam | hon |
| bone | kodus | kodus | kedoq | nədus | honim |
| skin | falak | -kesik | balg | nensiek | falek |
| tree | kout | ouk | pelu | bua | molom |
| man | nadele | (ne) dala | dli | nanla | naadla |
| sun | pun | dewe | telu | tale | pun |
| water | kala | kala | kəla | kla | sem |
| fire | sal | yak | salp | yap | |
| stone | amak | kwak | amp | kuat | amak |
| name | nakadi | kedi | numhamone | nomo | kendim |
| eat | atkaren | wak | nagrimi | nate | atni |
| one | mere | mele | merəh | məre | mre |
| two | lap | ali | telok | ali | la; lauh |